29 December 2011

the great coffee plunge - printing tea towels



Just before Christmas, I signed up for a one day intensive, tea towel screen printing course at the sensational Harvest Workshop in Brunswick. Absolutely love what these guys do - alongside creating their own wonderful products, Harvest Textiles (the umbrella business) organises textile and screen printing classes, design markets, pop up shops & exhibitions.

I had screen printed before, but quite some time ago. The lovely Elissa Sadgrove & I had an exhibition at West Space many moons ago, where we used tshirts to represent a kind of storyboard for a little obtuse narrative we created with stylised graphics - about wombats, weather gods & forces going horribly wrong!

Creating smaller one off prints at one's leisure is a helluva lot easier than setting up a mini production line in a really small window of time. I looked as though I had run a marathon by the end of the course, but was super pleased with the end result. I could unfortunately only print four, so three have found new homes with family (chrissy presents), and one remains with me. Definitely would like to pursue more printing on fabric in the the not too distant future. But due to lack of space, I'm thinking of playing around with smaller stencils and the good ol potato. I do like the idea of a vegetable being a piece of image making equipment!

9 comments:

Alandroide said...

¡A punto de ser comidos!

Excelente ilustraciĆ³n
Saludos :)

Kylie said...

Yah for screenprinting! It's so much fun, isn't it? So addictive too ;) Love your creation. Kx

Hazel Terry said...

Lucky lucky you I love their blog.
Your print is magic!
Congratulations and . . . . . .
HAPPY NEW YEAR x

helicopter6 said...

Thanks so much! Kylie: It is fun... I need to get my head around the possibilities - it requires a whole new level of my already divided attention! Hazel: They are just a bit special, and yes, I'm lucky to be in Melbourne to take advantage of their very fine entrepreneurial prowess! A very Happy New Year to you too. x

annamaria potamiti said...

Love this print! I wonder what you will be doing with potatoes!What fun! My best wishes for a very happy, wonder-full 2012!!XXOO

holly aka golly said...

Helen: this is gorgeous! what fun! get yourself a big 'ol bag of potatoes and get going! You're onto something great. :)

Sandra Eterovic said...

Hi Helen,

This is a fantastic design -- I hope you kept the screens and are planning on making plenty more!! I can see the start of a burgeoning business, starting with a busy etsy shop...

Go forth young lady!
Happy 2012!

Sandra

Unknown said...

your tea towel looks fantastic, how lucky all the donees are!
I wish I could have attended this course too, would love to do screen prints. Maybe someone in the nearer future!
Wish you a lucky, successful 2012!
Barbara

Childrens Curtains said...

Greetings!
the great coffee plunge - printing tea towels
This post is just a tremendously nicely structured piece. Awesome things you have here. Best of luck!